The Discussion Surrounding High Elves as an Allied Race

At the recent Battle for Azeroth Q&A, Ion addressed the question of playable High Elves as an Allied Race. This was one of the most controversial replies at the Q&A, generating lots of discussion around the community, so we're examining the reasoning and counter-arguments in more detail.\r\r\r\rResponse at the Q&A\rThe question was asked roughly 1 hour and 1 minute into the Q&A:\r<iframe src="https:\/\/player.twitch.tv\/?autoplay=false&video=v254739285" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" scrolling="no" height="378" width="620"><\/iframe><a href="https:\/\/www.twitch.tv\/videos\/254739285?tt_content=text_link&tt_medium=vod_embed" style="padding:2px 0px 4px; display:block; width:345px; font-weight:normal; font-size:10px; text-decoration:underline;">Watch MDI 2018 - APAC Regionals - Day 2 from Warcraft on www.twitch.tv<\/a>\r\rWhen deciding on Allied Races, why did you choose Void Elves when High Elves seemed more of an organic and popular choice?\r\rSo, Blood Elves kind of are High Elves with different eye colors and backstory in terms of their relationship to magic in the Sunwell. But if you want to be a fair-skinned, light, blonde-haired, tall, majestic, elf...that is a Blood Elf.\r\rGiving that race directly to the Alliance would have blurred a lot of the lines between the two factions, but also there isn't a clear example of who or what High Elves are as a larger group which remains in Azeroth. There's a couple...we just met Alleria again...but they're not out there in the same way. When we add an Allied Race, there's a desire to have things be even more distinct especially between the two factions with the faction conflict being so prominent. And so, the Void Elf angle, as it tied into the story of Argus, the powers of Alleria awakened and was able to train others to harness, was able to give something that felt a bit like a Blood Elf but had a unique flavor of its own to the Alliance.\r\rThat said, obviously I understand you would love Alliance elves...you're an Alliance player, and want to be a fair-skinned, light-haired, blue-eyed elf. Sorry? The Horde is there and waiting for you. Eye color is not quite the same but maybe contact lenses in the future, you never know? Anything is possible in the future, but no plans in the near-term to add High Elves as an Allied Race.\r\rThis reply is also in line with what Ion said in an interview with Jesse Cox at BlizzCon 2017.\r\rNow while it's not a surprise that Ion's response at BlizzCon and the Q&A stayed consistent, what players are interested in is the reasoning behind the replies. Arguments could be made that High Elves have a sizable-enough population, relevant backstory, and cultural identity to be an Allied Race, especially compared to some of the existing Allied Races.\r\rWho are the High Elves?\rAfter being exiled by the Night Elves for wielding the arcane, the Highborne, led by Dath'Remar Sunstrider, set sail for the Eastern Kingdoms. Their appearance changed over time, becoming closer to that of a Human instead of a Night Elf, due to losing their connection with the Well of Eternity. Traveling across Eastern Kingdoms to find the right spot to build a new magical city, they eventually founded the kingdom of Quel'Thalas with Sunwell as their new font of magic. \r\rThe kingdom prospered for many years until the Second War, when the Horde's northern attack burned much of Quel'Thalas. This soured relations between the Alliance and High Elves, with many severing ties.\r\rMany of the High Elves, including Sylvanas Windrunner and Anasterian, were later killed in Arthas' attack on Quel'Thalas, with another large segment of the population killed in the attack on Dalaran. Those that survived and united with Kael'thas' called themselves the Blood Elves. Those that stayed close to their Alliance friends after the Second War are the High Elves.\r\rWhere are the High Elves in WoW?\rThe remaining High Elves who did not join the Blood Elves are scattered throughout WoW. Here are some of their notable appearances:\rAllerian Stronghold is a town in Terokkar Forest with High Elven architecture and many surviving NPCs like Capitaine Auric Courresoleil and Taela Vassanfin.\rHigh Elf Vereesa Windrunner formed Concordat argenté, a faction of High Elves opposed to the Blood Elves presence in Dalaran. Exalted with the Silver Covenant can be reached through reputation from Argent Tournament dailies and interesting rewards include Palefroi quel'dorei, Hippogriffe du Concordat argenté, Wyrmelin chatoyant, Tabard du Concordat argenté.\rThe Silver Covenant played an important role in the Mists of Pandaria Landfall storyline. After the Sunreavers helped Garrosh steal the Divine Bell, the Silver Covenant helped Jaina retaliate and purge the Horde from Dalaran. Together with the Kirin Tor mages, they formed the Kirin Tor Offensive.\rIn the Insurrection Storyline, Vereesa and the High Elves aid Tyrande and Liadrin in taking back Suramar for the Nightborne.\rYou can find sizable amounts of High Elves in Stormwind, Dalaran, and Telogrus Rift.\r\r\r\r\rWhat Do High Elves Look Like?\rHigh Elves resemble Blood Elves in-game except their eyes glow blue, not green or gold. They share the same hairstyles except High Elven hair tends to be very light.\r\rWhile you can't create a High Elf in game, you can have fun creating one in the Wowhead Dressing Room. To view these options, make sure "Include NPC-only options" is selected and then choose Skin Tone 11-15 for Female and Skin Tone 12-16 for Male.\r\r\r\r\rOne concern is that High Elves only have eye colors separating them from the Blood Elves visually, and Allied Races are visually distinct from their parent races--such as green Orcs vs the wide-ranging skin color options for Mag'har Orcs. However with the addition of Kul Tiran humans differentiated from regular humans by body types, new hair styles, and facial options like scars, it could be argued that similar battle scars, jewelry, and hairstyles could be added to reflect the unique aesthetic of the High Elves after they split from the Blood Elves. Alleria also has distinctive tattoos which could turn into customization options for a potential Allied Race. \r\rWhy High Elves Could Work\rA few weeks ago, Taliesin and Evitel made a convincing video explaining how High Elves could work for the Alliance! Even though this video was made before the Q&A, it also addresses many of the reasons discussed in the Q&A:\r\r\rHere is the main set of criteria they used:\rAre they a different enough race to playable options?\rAre there enough of them?\rAre they relevant?\r\rAnd here are some highlights from the video:\rWhile the number of remaining High Elves is small, other Allied Races have small populations as well, such as the handful of exiled Void Elves and all the Lightforged Draenei on their spaceship.\rWhile the Blood Elves and High Elves are genetically the same, players are interested in how the cultural differences make them different. Elisande recognizes their differences and treats the High Elves as a separate race, stating - "Quel'dorei? You are peasants playing at nobility, all too willing to mingle with lesser races that dilute your bloodline. You are unworthy of the name high elves."\rThe Mag'har Orc Allied Race is similar to the Orc Race--they're just Orcs uncorrupted by the fel...which sounds similar to how High Elves are uncorrupted Blood Elves.\rThe remaining High Elves could be grouped together under the Concordat argenté, led by Vereesa Windrunner. They've made a significant appearance in several expansions and contributed a sizable amount of troops to the Insurrection Storyline.\rWhile the High Elf story could be expanded more--the lack of a pre-existing story, in-game familiarity, and small population hasn't hindered Blizzard from creating the brand-new Void Elf faction.\r\rIf you want to read more ideas on how High Elves could work as an Allied Race, including more customization options and potential classes, check out the Alurna Manifest of High Elves.

Commentaires

Commentaire de TutorialBlox

Commentaire de mfuehrer

on 2018-04-29T22:12:55-05:00

Give us High Elves already.

Commentaire de OrferVan

on 2018-04-29T22:13:27-05:00

LOL it came to this...

LOL they didn't just implement them and gave people grape elves.

Not even a die hard fan of High Elves, they just feel infinitely more natural and could easily be distinct enough with options, similar to how Dark Irons are distinct from Normal black skin tone dwarves with different eyes.

Commentaire de Pizzagoat

on 2018-04-29T22:19:34-05:00

This is starting to feel like a witch hunt. Even if the discussion has convinced them to add high elves, it wouldn't be for another expansion considering they probably have their plans for BfA set in stone and would have to drum up a Horde equivalent in the mean time

Commentaire de Fixi

on 2018-04-29T22:19:40-05:00

Just don't use the phrase "master race" on the WoW forums, daz a ban... haha. (But doesn't it seem like... oh nevermind).

Commentaire de Villager720

on 2018-04-29T22:22:05-05:00

When people say "they could be given unique customization options like scars and tatoos\/paint" - I always think "but why wouldn't blood elves also have those exact same customization options". I mean - Sylvanas and Lorthremar were elven rangers too - why can't they look like Alleria? There isn't really a lore reason for them to look different (sans eye color, obviously). The people who will say "oh they were in Dalaran so they developed new features" - so was Kael'thas. He didn't look unique. Or "oh they spent more time with humans\/cross-bred" - Alleria\/Valeera\/Sylvanas "spent" time with humans. They don't look different. High elves are just a faction of Thalassian elves that aligned different politically. Any customization (sans eye color) they would have would also logically belong to the blood elves. This is why they made void elves (poorly, obviously). Void elves are visibly distinct enough to not blur faction lines.

Also. Drinking demon blood resulting in having a Blood Curse > draining magic out of some demons. They're not the same thing. If you need concrete evidence : Blood Elves didn't have their skin turn colors during their demon draining phase. Had they been exposed to higher levels of fel energy, I'm sure we'd have some green blood elves just like the orcs.Oh wait. We did. In the Sunwell raid. And when exposed to ample void - lo' and behold - they turned purple. So the Mag'har\/Generic Orc example is poor.

Commentaire de Darkhay

on 2018-04-29T22:22:14-05:00

GOD DAMMIT... you guys sure are persistent... if kael thas never changed the elves name to blood elves because of the scourge invasion, and the name remained high elves because YES BLOOD ELVES ARE HIGH ELVES, then this discussion would probably never existed... if you get a high elf and let him to live in silvermoon his eyes gonna change over time because of the magic source of energy...in the past it were a fel energy, thats why changed to green, nowadays is a light source of power, so thats why blood elves are getting golden eyes...nothing especialBlood elves are High elves, end of the story...

Commentaire de Caledonii

on 2018-04-29T22:24:41-05:00

It is an idea whose time has come and for which there are zero valid arguments against. I like how T&E put it in his followup video after the very badly handled Q&A. Ion could have just said "No, I don't want to do High Elves" which would be weird to just say no to an idea, but it would have been valid like "No, I don't like cucumbers." But Ion gave a reason why its allegedly impossible to do High Elves, his reasons are wildly inconsistent and negated by both Void Elves and Nightborne, but mostly Void Elves. Ion was like the No cucumbers guy, but instead said "Well I hate long green vegetables!" but then goes on to eat zucchini. He gave a bad reasoning, an inconsistent reasoning.\r\rWhat is worse is it seems he hasn't read any of the feedback, which is disheartening after the Dev team said it wanted feedback on Allied Race ideas.

Commentaire de Talihawk

on 2018-04-29T22:24:44-05:00

It's kind of silly honestly. Pandaren are both Horde and Alliance! They don't look any different from one another! If they can both be on either side, I don't see why High Elves and Blood Elves can't do the same thing.

Commentaire de sbensen

on 2018-04-29T22:24:59-05:00

Removed

Commentaire de Kanktank

on 2018-04-29T22:26:34-05:00

I appreciate wowhead trying to put out more content everyday (even on weekends), but there had to be better articles to write than this one (like discussion on the GCD changes).

Commentaire de Joyreym

on 2018-04-29T22:26:46-05:00

By far the worst developer in the history of World of Warcraft. Not for the reason of not responding to the requests of the players, but for responding in that way debauch and sarcastic. Totally contrary to the principles that blizzard says follow in their blizzcom. There seems to be a lot to learn from the Overwatch development team.

Commentaire de DrGreatScott

on 2018-04-29T22:27:56-05:00

Unpopular opinion here! I like both Void elves and High elves, and as much as I would like to see HEs as their own Allied race, I\u2019d be okay if they just added fair skin options to the VEs. Not the fix most die hard HE fans want, but it\u2019d be a compromise nonetheless. Their eyes are bluish and RPers can make up enough story to compensate.

Commentaire de DrGreatScott

on 2018-04-29T22:27:57-05:00

By far the worst developer in the history of World of Warcraft. Not for the reason of not responding to the requests of the players, but for responding in that way debauch and sarcastic. Totally contrary to the principles that blizzard says follow in their blizzcom. There seems to be a lot to learn from the Overwatch development team.

Is he a sarcastic jerk? Yeah, but you have to admit Legion for all its faults was a phenomenal expansion. That and he gets hate mail for everything that doesn\u2019t show up in datamining sprees, so I can see why you\u2019d start to give two craps about the constant stream of whining portions of the community tend to go back and forth about.

Commentaire de Villager720

on 2018-04-29T22:29:15-05:00

It's kind of silly honestly. Pandaren are both Horde and Alliance! They don't look any different from one another! If they can both be on either side, I don't see why High Elves and Blood Elves can't do the same thing.\r\rThey've stated in the past they didn't like how the neutral race blended faction identity.

Commentaire de KaptainKrunk

on 2018-04-29T22:29:59-05:00

Someone in the HE discord works at WoWhead apparently.

Commentaire de Edelweiss323

on 2018-04-29T22:30:38-05:00

They could make them if they wanted to and design them sufficiently different in appearance. But they don't want to. \rThey did a big mistake to make the Void Elves horde traitors, instead of transformed High Elves. If they were lore-wise high elves, less players would've complained. \r\rAlso the responses the High Elves fans get are NOT helping the situation to ease up for them, because it's not fun to be refused. Ion was completely tactless (lol, sorry i guess? well, go play horde, idk.not my problem) . That's not how you speak to a customer and not as a director. If he said: ,,look, i understand you guys want them, but there are no future plans to implement them, BUT we promise that we will make the Void elves fun and likeable and we would explore their relations with the high elves''. But no. Just lol sorry. Go horde.\r\rHe tries to ignore that HE exist, he tries to make them unimportant where on the other hand half of Dalaran is full of them. Just admit it. Yes, HE exist. Yes, they are different. No, we won't implement them, but if you guys love them so much, we will make sure they will have some nice story line to help them, work with them or whatever. You know. Make a fan service in the extent that you can. \r\rBut nah. IF you want special treatment, idk. Go horde.

Commentaire de Vibriss

on 2018-04-29T22:30:52-05:00

The turmoil around this reply is a proof that the playerbase has become way too spoiled and demanding.

Commentaire de Mafia1882

on 2018-04-29T22:31:17-05:00

\r... This is why they made void elves (poorly, obviously). Void elves are visibly distinct enough to not blur faction lines.\r\r\rP\rA\rN\rD\rA\rS

Commentaire de Natersmater

on 2018-04-29T22:31:43-05:00

It's really only a matter of time in my eyes. Ion did not rule High Elves out, but he did say not for the foreseeable future which makes sense considering they would step all over people desire to play Void Elves, which were a horribly stupid idea from the onset....